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Wozniacki woes continue with Rome loss

Former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki is still without a win in a major clay-court tournament this season as the French Open approaches after losing a marathon match to Bojana Jovanovski 2-6 6-4 7-6 (7-5) at the ATP/WTA Rome Masters on Tuesday.

The 10th-seeded Wozniacki laboured for almost three hours in a struggle which ended in front of a standing-room only crowd as she lost to her 48th-ranked opponent in their first-round match.

With her victory, the 21-year-old from Belgrade ended a poor run of form and claimed her first win since mid-January at the Australian Open.

Wozniacki had beaten the Serb in both of their previous meetings, but was burdened with six double-faults in her Rome defeat while losing serve seven times.

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Russian Maria Kirilenko restored order for the seeds at the Foro Italico as the number 12 beat Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3 6-3.

Meanwhile, German Julia Goerges advanced over Czech Andrea Hlavackova despite losing the opening set and Varvara Lepchenko of the US defeated Lesya Tsurenko 6-4 6-2.

On Monday, Samantha Stosur finally enjoyed her first win of the European clay season on her third attempt, with a comfortable 6-2 6-3 win over Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei at the Rome Masters.

Former French Open finalist Stosur was bundled out in her opening matches at both Stuttgart and Madrid before tasting victory in the first round in Rome.

Stosur travelled to Italy to practice immediately after her first round loss to Carla Suarez Navarro in Madrid and the move paid off as the Australian ninth seed served well and her forehand held steady in the windy conditions.

"What I really like here is the surface, the clay courts are very light and the ball gets through the air pretty quickly," Stosur said.